Thera 7.2: Lakuntaka-Bhaddiya
Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(225):Lakuntaka-Bhaddiya Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'. ---- Chapter VII. Seven Verses =225. Lakuṇṭaka-Bhaddiya= Reborn in the time of our Lord(Buddha) at Savatthi in a wealthy family, he was named Bhaddiya, but from his extreme shortness, he was known as Lakuntaka (Dwarf)-Bhaddiya. Hearing the Lord(Buddha) preach, he entered the Monk’s order, and becoming learned and eloquent, he taught others their work with a sweet voice. Now on a festival-day, a certain woman of the town, driving with a brahmin(priest) in a chariot, saw the Thera and laughed, showing her teeth.1 The Thera, taking that row of teeth as an object-sign, evoked jhāna, and on that basis established insight and became a Non-Returner(Anagami).2 And after practising mindfulness regarding the body,3 administered by the Captain of the Path(Sariputra),4 he was established in arahantship(enlightenment). Later he thus declared aññā''(supreme attainment):'' ---- 466 Pare ambāṭakārāme vanasaṇḍamhi bhaddiyo,|| Samūlaɱ taṇhamabbuyha tattha bhaddo jhayāyati. || || 467 Ramanteke mutiŋgehi vīṇāhi paṇavehi ca,|| Ahaɱ ca rukkhamūlasmiɱ rato buddhassa sāsane.|| || 468 Buddho ce me varaɱ dajjā so ca labbhetha me varo,|| Gaṇhehaɱ sabbalokassa niccaɱ kāyagataɱ satiɱ.|| || 469 Ye maɱ rūpena pāmiɱsu ye ca ghesena anvagū,|| Chandarāgavasūpetā na maɱ jānanti te janā.|| || 470 Ajjhattaɱ ca na jānāti bahiddhā ca na passati,|| Samantāvaraṇo bālo sa ve ghesena vuyhati.|| || 471 Ajjhattaɱ ca na jānāti bahiddhā ca vipassati,|| Bahiddhā phaladassāvī so'pi ghosena vuyhati.|| || 472 Ajjhattaɱ ca pajānāti bahiddhā ca vipassati,|| Anāvaraṇadassāvī na so ghosena vuyhatī' ti.|| || ---- 466 Beyond the gardens of Ambataka,5 In woodland wild, craving and craving's root Withdrawn, and rapt in deepest reverie(trance/samadhi), There happy sits fortunate Bhaddiya. 467 231 And some are charmed by cymbals,6 lutes and drums, And I in leafy shadow of my trees Do live entranced by the Buddha's Rule. 468 Let but the Buddha grant one boon to me, And if that boon were mine, I'd choose for all Perpetual study in control of self. 469 They who decry me for my shape, and they Who listen spell-bound to my voice, such folk In toils of lust and impulse know me not. 470 The fool hemmed in on every side knows not The inner life, nor sees the things without, And by a voice indeed is led away. 471 And if the inner life he knows not, Yet can discern the things that are without, Watching alone the outer fruits that come, He also by a voice is led away. 472 He, who both understands the inner life, And did discern the things that are without, Clear-visioned, by no voice is led away.7 ---- 1 Someone's tes proved equally efficacious for Thera Mahā Tissa of Ceylon. See Atthasālinī, p. 200; Bud. Psy., p. 70 n. 2 The grade of salvation next below the arahant(enlightened), in which final death is to come after one more life in one of the remoter heavens. 3 Cf. Dialogues, ii. 328 f. 4 Sāriputta. 5 This park is probably that at Macchikasaṇḍa, given by Citta to the Monk’s order (Dhammapada Commentary, ii. 74). 6 Mutingehi means a variety of drum. Our drum nomenclature is insufficient for the number of Indian species of this instrument. The sweet voice probably went with a musical ear, and this is why he ranks music as second only to his own supreme source of delight. Kāyagatāsatiŋ. is not 'Study in control of self' but 'minding the gates of the senses' (minding the gates to body) 7 Bhaddiya (the name means Felix, Fortunatus; his soubriquet distinguishes him from the other Bhaddiya, cf. CCLIV.) is in Ang., i. 25, ranked as the sweetest voiced among all the monks. This distinction is said to have been the result of an aspiration made in past ages, before Padumuttara Buddha. The evolutionary momentum of this caused him rebirth, under Vipassi Buddha, as a 'variegated-feathered cuckoo' (citta-pattakokila), a sweet warbler in India. The Cy. does not refer to the realization of his wish, but the poem betrays it. 'Study in control of self': kāyagatāsatiŋ. ----